Dzonokwa,
the Wild Woman of the Woods, was the Kwakiutl Goddess of abundance
and rebirth. She bestowed wonderful blessings upon those who
respected her but she was also greatly feared. After her son
was killed by hunters, a young orphan, who was not pleasant to
look at, led her to the body and they carried him home. To thank
the young man for his kindness, she bestowed great riches upon
him. When she threw some magical water on him and on the body
of her son, the orphan became handsome and her son came back
to life. She taught the orphan the secrets of rebirth and revived
his parents with her magical water. Kwakiutl mask of Dzonokwa
from Vancouver, BC, 19th century; robe is an adaptation of an
early 20th century Kwakiutl cedar bark woman's ceremonial cape;
early 20th century Kwakiutl pole in background from Alert Bay,
British Columbia.

30"x24" copyright
2001 oil on linen

ESTSAN--AH-TLEHAY
(CHANGING WOMAN) & NATSEELIT

Estsan-ah-tlehay,
Navajo Goddess of the cycles of life, was born in New Mexico
and, as a baby, was fed white shell food, which is the ceremonial
name of cornmeal mush. At the age of 16, during her maiden ceremony
(called Hozhonigi or Making the Path of Life Beautiful), she
changed into a crone, then grew younger again. She did this four
times, finally remaining at about 20 years old. With the sun
as their father, she gave birth to a pair of twins who slew the
monsters that were destroying the people. She also created more
people from the flakes of her skin. Natseelit was the Navajo
Goddess of the rainbow. The sandpainting on the ground is after
one by Bitahni-bedugai from the Hozhonji or Blessing Chant. It
was made for a night ceremony invoking Estsan-ah-tlehay to get
rid of bad dreams. Natseelit stands between the two blue deities
in the sandpainting. Estsan-ah-tlehay is wearing a Navajo squash
blossom necklace after one from Arizona, 1915, a ketoh or wristguard,
1930, and a floated warp sash from Arizona/New Mexico, 1910.
Natseelit wears a Navajo silver belt after one from the early
20th century.

30"x24"
copyright 2001oil on linen

30"x24"
copyright 2001-2 oil on linen

HEBE
& PAIAN

Hebe
was the Greek Goddess of rejuvenation and immortality who provided
ambrosia, the nectar of eternal youth, to the other deities.
Paian was the little god of healing, son of a priestess of Artemis
and Selene's (Goddess of the Moon) lover Endymion. As sister
to Ares, the god of war, Hebe was called upon, along with Paian,
to heal her brother. Even though, in the original myth, they
heal his person, here they heal him, as well as the earth, by
melting the implements of war. When patriarchal invaders overtook
the Goddess culture, Hebe, who had been known as Ganymeda in
more ancient times, was displaced by Ganymede as cupbearer to
the gods and was married off to Hercules. To the ancient Greeks,
Ganymede (and by extension Ganymeda or Hebe) feeding the eagle
symbolized overcoming death. Hebe wears earrings after a pair
found in Kalymnos, 450-400 BCE and a necklace after one found
at Kourion, 400-300 BCE. She is holding a cup after an Attic
black figure dinos, c 580 BCE. One of the figures of Hebe on
the cup can be found on the original dinos, the other is from
an Attic red figure pyxis, c 350 BCE. The representation behind
her on the right is most likely of herself after a relief from
Epidauros, Sanctuary of Asklepios (who displaced Paian as the
god of healing under patriarchy), 400-350 BCE. The weapons are
after some found in Peloponnesian tombs, 8th century BCE. The
helmet is after one from Corinth, c. early 5th century BCE.

MADONNA
OF THE EARTH

The
Madonna is a manifestation of the ancient Mother Goddess. Figures
of Madonnas from the Neolithic era and later connect Mary to
a very ancient line of Goddesses. The story of Mary and her son,
who was killed and resurrected, mirrors the myths of Ishtar and
Tammuz, Inanna and Dumuzi, Aphrodite and Adonis, Cybele and Attis,
Isis and Osiris, and Demeter and Persephone. Mary's name comes
from "mare", the Latin word for the sea. Many of the
great Mother Goddesses were born from the sea and Mary's title,
"Stella Maris", Star of the Sea, originally belonged
to Isis. Figures of Madonnas in the myrrh tree in the background
are, clockwise from upper left, La Moraneta of Monserrat which
arrived in Barcelona in the late 7th century; Mesopotamian Madonna
from around 2000 BCE; Madonna from Rhodes, late 6th to early
5th century BCE; a blue faience amulet of Isis and Horus from
Egypt, c. 945 BCE.

30"x24" copyright 2001
oil on linen

SEKHMET
AWAKENING

Sekhmet,
whose name meant "the mighty one", was the ancient
Egyptian Goddess of destruction as well as healing. Greatly disgusted
with human beings for their lack of reverence, she began to eat
them. The other deities became concerned and put out a mixture
of beer and pomegranate juice. Thinking it was blood, Sekhmet
lapped it up and fell into a stupor. When she awoke, all her
rage was gone. Because of her great knowledge of magic, she possessed
tremendous powers of healing. She had the power to manifest energy
into form. She holds an ankh, symbol of eternal life, in her
left hand; in her right, she holds a papyrus scepter. The papyrus
was the emblem of Lower Egypt and symbolized the creation of
the world from the primeval waters. The statue of Sekhmet is
from Karnak, Egypt, c. 1390-52 BCE; her necklace is adapted from
one found in Tutankhamun's tomb, Valley of the Kings, c. 1330
BCE.

30"x24"
copyright 2001-2 oil on linen

TABITI
OF THE ALTAI

Chief
deity of the Scythians, Tabiti was protector of the hearth and
of wealth. Since their wealth was determined by the number of
flocks they had, she was also known as a protector of animals.
Among the Scythians, women were seen as controllers of life and
death. They were associated with the mystical realm and powerful
animals, sometimes fusing with the latter. The mirror, in many
ancient cultures, symbolized protection against evil spirits.
The one she is holding is after one found in the Ukraine, near
Kerch, from the Kul'Oba Kurgan, c. 4th century BCE. Her torque
is after one from Soboleva Mohyla, Ukraine, 350-25 BCE. Her earring,
depicting a seated goddess who is probably Tabiti, is after a
pair found near Velyka Znam'ianka, Ukraine, c. 4th century BCE.
The plaques around her headdress and on her dress could depict
the ritual marriage of Tabiti to a king; they were found in the
Chertomlyk kurgan, Ukraine, 350-25 BCE. She is holding a cup
with horses from Bratoliubivs'ky kurgan, near Ol'hyno, Ukraine,
5th century BCE.

30"x24" copyright 2001
oil on linen

30"x24"
copyright 2001 oil on linen

THE
THREE NORNS

The
Three Norns were the Scandinavian Goddesses of Fate. Erda or
Urd (on the left) represented the past and lived by the sacred
well Urtharbrunn at the foot of the Yggdrasill, the Tree of Life,
tending the root that extended to Asgard which was the home of
the deities. She is wearing a necklace from Gryta, Sweden, Viking
Age (8th-11th centuries), and holds a Frankish pitcher found
in a Viking grave at Birka, Sweden, 9th century. Verthandi or
Verdandi (in the middle) represented the present and protected
mothers and ruled the phases of the moon. She is wearing a necklace
found at Birka, Sweden with a pendant depicting a weaving goddess
from southwest Germany, 6th centruy, and holds a small plaque
of three goddesses holding a child, a scroll and a bowl from
the Romano-Gaulish settlement at Vertillum, France. Sculda (on
the right) represented the future and held the scroll that the
future was written upon. They are all holding spindles. Associated
with weaving, they wove the future for each person at the time
of birth. The stags in the branches of the tree, Dain, Dvalin,
Duneyr and Durathror, represent the four winds. The relief behind
them, depicting deer chewing on the branches of the Tree of Life,
is from the Staukirke, Urnes, Norway, c. 11th century.

30"x24"
copyright 2002 oil on linen

TRIPLE
GODDESS

Three
was a sacred number for many of the early cultures, most especially
for the Celts. The Goddess was often portrayed in Her three aspects
as Maiden, Mother and Crone, mirroring the cycles of nature.
Altars to the Matrae (Celtic form), Matres (in Gaul and Britain)
or Matronae (in Germany under Roman rule) can be found throughout
the settled areas of Europe and are clearly associated with the
fertility of the crops as well as the health of the children.
The frieze of the Matrae in the lower right, which portrays Maiden,
Mother and Crone holding loaves of bread and the fruits of the
earth, is from the Roman era in Cirencester, early 1st - 2nd
century CE. In the painting, the rabbit holds a frieze of the
"Green One" from Wiltshire, England, 13th-14th century
CE. The Maiden's torque (left) is from the tomb of Princess Vix,
France, 6th century BCE. The Mother's torque (center) is from
Snettisham, Norfolk, mid 1st century BCE. The Crone's torque
(right) is from Waldalgesheim, Germany, 4th century BCE and her
earring is after a bronze disk from Ireland, 1st- 2nd century
CE.

WADJIT

Wadjit
was the Egyptian Goddess of Creation who birthed the sun each
morning from the sacred papyrus marshes. Known as Buto to the
Greeks, her name meant "The Green One" or "The
Papyrus-Hued One", referring to her exceptional powers of
growth. Wadjit was also the protective hissing cobra of the uraeus.
She was depicted in both cobra and human form. In her cobra form,
she was the symbol of Lower Egypt and it was said that the papyrus
emerged from her. As an inhabitant of the marshes, the otter
was also associated with her. The relief on the left shows Wadjit
in a gesture of protection from the pyramid temple of King Neuserra,
5th Dynasty. To the right of that is a relief of a papyrus marsh
from the Mastaba of Mereruka, Saqqara, 6th Dynasty c. 2300 BCE;
behind it, on the left, is a statue of an otter from the Ptolemaic
Period c. 304-30 BCE and, on the right, a copy of a previously
existing mural of a papyrus marsh that was originally in the
north palace of Akhenaton at Tell-el-Amarna, c. 1360 BCE. The
relief on the right of Wadjit in her cobra form is from the funerary
bed of Queen Hetephras, 4th Dynasty. She is wearing an earring
and an armband (design adapted from a pectoral) from Tutankhamen's
Tomb, c. 1323 BCE.